The Leather District is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

near South Street, between the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

and

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

. The Leather District (occasionally referred to as the "LD") is a tightly defined area bounded by Kneeland Street to the south, Essex Street to the north, Atlantic Avenue to the east and Lincoln Street to the west. It is so named due to the dominance of the leather industry in the late 19th century.

History

The district did not exist until Boston's land-making expansions filled in the former South Cove during the 1830s, making way for the development of this area as well as Chinatown. It was at first developed as a residential area, but became the center of the city's leather industry after the

Great Boston Fire of 1872 The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, November 9, 1872, in the basement of a co ...

, which devastated the city's business district and led to the introduction of stringent commercial fire codes. The buildings constructed in this district between the 1880s and 1920 reflect these constraints, and the needs of the leather manufacturers to efficiently use their spaces. Ground floors were designed to showcase merchandise, and the second floors housed offices. Upper floors were used for storage, the top floors being reserved for the slowest-moving merchandise. Many of the buildings were designed by architects, notably including

Peabody and Stearns Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845–1917) and John Goddard Stearns ...

and Willard T. Sears, with a significant influence of the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The district is the most homogeneous 19th-century commercial district in the city, and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1983.

References

External links

City of Boston neighborhoods site
Accessed 2008-09-09 {{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Neighborhoods in Boston National Register of Historic Places in Boston Historic districts in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Leather industry

History

See also

References

External links